Lead Truck Auction 2010 → 2 Jumbotrons!

Last year marked the debut of two exciting additions to the raceday experience: the chance to ride in the lead truck and the jumbotron. This year, we’re taking it up a notch.

The Buggy Alumni Association is pledging the first $1,000 of auction proceeds directly to Sweepstakes to help cover the cost of 2 jumbotrons at raceday this year!

Those of you that are familiar with both the lead truck auction and the jumbotron from last year are probably so excited already you won’t read the rest of this post. For the rest of you, details are below.

About the Lead Truck Auction

The lead truck auction is your chance to ride in the official sweepstakes vehicle that goes down the course before the buggies in each heat. Riding in the bed of the truck, facing backwards, you have the only continuous view of the entire race available (assuming you’re not a driver or in the follow truck). Having taken the ride last year for the first time, I can personally attest that it feels like you’re right there with the driver the whole way rooting her around the course.

We will be running the auction very similarly to last year for those that participated. Each preliminary heat will be auctioned off individually with starting bids of $10. Since finals heats are unknown until friday afternoon, we will auction off the right to have your pick of the men’s and women’s heats. The top bidder for a men’s final heat will get first pick, the second highest bidder will pick next, etc.

About the Jumbotrons

The jumbotron at the top of hill 2 was a huge hit last year because you could finally see the start, the finish, and the freeroll via cmuTV’s excellent coverage. After carnival, there were numerous comments here on the forum that “all we really need now is another jumbotron in the chute!” Well, ask and you shall receive buggy alumni. This year, you will be able to freely pick your favorite spot to see buggy without missing the rest of the action.

The specific jumbotrons we’re using this year are the Barco B-10 which feature 15-foot (measured diagonally like a TV) screens! One will be where it was last year, on the Skibo Lawn near the traditional scoreboard location. The other will be on the outside of the chute facing across the road towards the gazebo.

We should definitely note that our $1000 contribution is not nearly the whole story. Last year the Entertainment Technology Center paid the bulk of the cost to promote their spinoff Get in Line Games which demo’d their software on the screen between heats. That was a one-time deal, but Sweepstakes recognized how awesome it was and reworked their budget to accomodate a good portion of the cost. Alumni Relations is also contributing a substantial amount because they realize how much of a benefit it is to alumni in particular (we’re too old to walk all around this course in the hot sun!). We have decided to pledge $1000 because that is almost exactly what we raised last year from the auction. Don’t hold back on your bids, both sweepstakes and the BAA are counting on the auction being a success to balance our budgets!